US States With No Income Tax in 2026: What They Charge You Instead

The list is Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming. A few of them come with footnotes worth knowing:

• Washington has no tax on wages, but it does tax long-term capital gains at 7.0% above a standard deduction of $278,000, with a top rate of 9.9% on the largest gains. A salaried worker never meets it through a paycheck. Washington also takes paid family leave and long-term care premiums from paychecks, which are not income tax and are not counted here.
• New Hampshire used to tax interest and dividends. That tax is repealed for periods beginning after December 31, 2024, so 2026 has no individual income tax at all.
• Tennessee repealed its Hall tax on interest and dividends for periods beginning in 2021.
• Texas goes further than most: its constitution bars a tax on the net income of individuals.

For the background on each state and how they got there, our guide to states with no income tax covers the history. This page does the arithmetic.

We picked one household and ran it through three calculators on this site in every state, so the only thing that changes from row to row is the state.

• Income tax: the paycheck calculator on a $75,000 salary, single filer, no pre-tax deductions. It applies each state's 2026 rate schedule to wages.
• Sales tax: the sales tax calculator on $25,000 of taxable purchases a year, at the state rate plus that state's average local rate.
• Property tax: the property tax calculator on a $400,000 home at the state's average effective rate, with no homestead exemption.

The $25,000 of taxable spending and the $400,000 home are our choices, not measured figures. We used the same values everywhere on purpose. Housing costs very different amounts in Wyoming and in Washington, and a fixed home value keeps the comparison about tax rates rather than about home prices.

There is a lot these numbers leave out, and it matters:

• No state deductions or credits. The paycheck calculator runs wages through each state's brackets without a state standard deduction, personal exemption or credit. That overstates income tax in the states that have them, which makes the income-tax states look a little more expensive than they are.
• One sales tax rate for everything. The sales tax figure applies the general rate to every dollar of the $25,000. In real life groceries, medicine and many services are exempt or taxed at a lower rate in many states, and your city's rate can sit well above or below the state average.
• Average property tax rates. The property tax rate is a statewide average of taxes paid against home values. Your county and school district set the real number, and homestead exemptions can cut it a lot.
• No local income taxes, no excise taxes. City income taxes, fuel and vehicle taxes, and fees are not included.

Click a column heading to sort.

Tennessee leans hardest on sales tax. Its combined rate, with the average local rate added, is 9.61%, which works out to $2,402.50 a year on our $25,000 of purchases. New Hampshire has no general sales tax at all, and Alaska has no state sales tax but lets boroughs and cities levy their own, averaging 1.82%.

On property tax, New Hampshire stands out with an average effective rate of 1.46%. On a $400,000 home that's $5,840.00 a year. With no income tax and no general sales tax, New Hampshire is the clearest case of a state that raises its money through the property tax bill.

On average, no. Here is where the average tax comes from in each group.

The income-tax states collect $3,267.31 on average from our household's paycheck. The no-income-tax states don't get that money back through higher sales or property taxes on average: their average sales tax bill is $1,553.33 against $1,689.76 elsewhere, and their average property tax is $3,502.22 against $3,561.95. At this income, the missing income tax is mostly a real saving.

That's an average, though. 8 of the 10 cheapest states for this household are no-income-tax states, with Wyoming cheapest of all at $3,627.50. Texas is the exception. Its high property tax pushes its total to $7,290.00, which ranks 25 out of 50 from cheapest. In all, 16 states with an income tax charge this household less in total.

If you want to see where your current state lands, here is the full list. It's sorted from the lowest total to the highest.

At the top of the bill, Illinois charges this household $13,637.50 a year, combining an income tax with an average property tax rate of 1.92%. Across all 50 states the average is $7,895.60.

A state with no income tax is a good deal for most people who earn a salary, but the size of the deal depends on two things this page holds fixed: what you'd pay for a house, and how much of your spending is taxable.

• If you rent, you don't pay property tax directly, though landlords pass some of it on in rent. The sales tax column matters more for you.
• If you'd buy a pricier home, property tax can eat the income tax savings quickly in Texas or New Hampshire. Run your own figure in the Florida property tax calculator or the national property tax calculator with the price you have in mind.
• If you earn more, the income tax saving grows, because most state income taxes are progressive. Our Texas paycheck calculator and the paycheck calculator for your current state will show the gap at your salary.

These numbers compare tax rates fairly across states, but they are not a forecast of your own bill. Plug in your salary, your spending and the home you'd actually buy before deciding anything.